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Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913[2] – April 30, 1983), known by his stage nameMuddy Waters, was an American blues musician. He is often considered the "father of modern Chicago blues".[3] Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi and by age seventeen was playing the guitar at parties, emulating local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson.[4] He was recorded by Alan Lomax there for theLibrary of Congress in 1941.[5][6] In 1943, he headed to Chicago with the hope of becoming a full-time professional musician, eventually recording, in 1946, for firstColumbia and then Aristocrat Records, a newly formed labelRUN by brothersLeonard and Phil Chess. In the early 1950s, Waters and his band, Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elgin Evans on drums and Otis Spann on piano, recorded a series of blues classics, some with bassist/songwriter Willie Dixon, including "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "I'm Ready". In 1958, Waters headed to England,HELPING to lay the foundations of the subsequent blues boom there, and in 1960 performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, recorded and released as his first live album, At Newport 1960. Waters's influence is tremendous, not just on blues and rhythm and blues but onrock 'n' roll, hard rock, folk, jazz, and country; his use of amplification is often cited as the link between Delta blues and rock 'n' roll.[7][8] Early life Although in his later years Waters usually said that he was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, in 1915, he was most likely born at Jug's Corner in neighboringIssaquena County in 1913.[9] Recent research has uncoveredDOCUMENTATIONshowing that in the 1930s and 1940s, before his rise to fame, he reported his birth year as 1913 on his marriage license, recording notes and musicians' union card. A 1955 interview in the Chicago Defender is the earliest claim of 1915 as his year of birth, which heCONTINUED to use in interviews from that point onward. The 1920 census lists him as five years old as of March 6, 1920, suggesting that his birth year may have been 1914. The Social Security Death Index, relying on the Social SecurityCARD APPLICATION submitted after his move to Chicago in the mid-1940s, lists him as being born April 4, 1913. Waters' gravestone gives his birth year as 1915. Waters's grandmother, Della Grant, raised him after his mother died shortly following his birth. Della gave the boy the nickname "Muddy" at an early age because he lovedTO PLAY in the muddy water of nearby Deer Creek.[10] Waters later changed it to "Muddy Water" and finally "Muddy Waters". The shack where Waters lived in his youth on Stovall Plantation is now located at the Delta Blues Museum inClarksdale, Mississippi. HeSTARTED out on harmonica, but by age seventeen he was playing the guitar at parties, emulating two blues artists in particular, Son House and Robert Johnson.[4][page needed] On November 20, 1932, Waters married Mabel Berry. Guitarist Robert Nighthawk played at the wedding and the party reportedly got so wild the floor fell in.[11] Mabel left Waters three years later when his first child was born; the child's mother was Leola Spain, 16 years old (Leola later used her maiden name, Brown), "married to a man named Steven" and "going with a guy named Tucker". Leola was the only one of his girlfriends with whom Waters would stay in touch throughout his life; they never married. By the time he finally cut out for Chicago in 1943, there was another Mrs. Morganfield left behind, a girl called Sallie Ann.[12] Early career In August[6] of 1941, Alan Lomax went to Stovall, Mississippi on behalf of the Library of Congress to record various country blues musicians. "He brought his stuff down and recorded me right in my house," Waters recalled in Rolling Stone, "and when he played back the first song I sounded just like anybody's records. Man, you don't know how I felt that Saturday afternoon when I heard that voice and it was my own voice. Later on he sent me two copies of the pressing and a check for twenty bucks, and I carried that record up to the corner and put it on the jukebox. Just played it and played it and said, 'I can do it, I can do it.'"[5] Lomax came back in July 1942 to record Waters again. Both sessions were eventually released as Down On Stovall's Plantation on the Testament label.[13] The complete recordings were re-issued on CD as Muddy Waters: The Complete Plantation Recordings. The historic 1941-42 Library of Congress field recordings by Chess Records in 1993, and re-mastered in 1997.[14] In 1943, Waters headed to Chicago with the hope of becoming a full-time professional musician. He lived with a relative for a short period while driving a truck and working in a factory by day and performing at night. Big Bill Broonzy, then one of the leading blues-men in Chicago, helped Waters break into the very competitive market by allowing him to open for his shows in the rowdy clubs.[15] In 1945, Waters' uncle, Joe Grant, gave him his first electric guitar, which enabled him to be heard above the noisy crowds.[16] In 1946, he recorded some tunes for Mayo Williams at Columbia but they were not released at the time. Later that year he began recording for Aristocrat Records, a newly formed label run by two brothers, Leonard and Phil Chess. In 1947, he played guitar with Sunnyland Slim on piano on the cuts "Gypsy Woman" and "Little Anna Mae." These were also shelved, but in 1948, "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home" became big hits and his popularity in clubs began to take off. Soon after, Aristocrat changed their label name to Chess Records and Waters' signature tune "Rollin' Stone" also became a smash hit. Commercial success Initially, the Chess brothers would not allow Waters to use his working band in the recording studio; instead he was provided with a backing bass by Ernest "Big" Crawford, or by musicians assembled specifically for the recording session, including "Baby Face" Leroy Foster and Johnny Jones. Gradually Chess relented, and by September 1953 he was recording with one of the most acclaimed blues groups in history: Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogerson guitar, Elga Edmonds (a.k.a. Elgin Evans) on drums and Otis Spann on piano. The band recorded a series of blues classics during the early 1950s, some with the help of bassist/songwriter Willie Dixon, including "Hoochie Coochie Man" (Number 8 on the R&B charts), "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (Number 4), and "I'm Ready". These three were "the most macho songs in his repertoire," wrote Robert Palmer in Rolling Stone. "Muddy would never have composed anything so unsubtle. But they gave him a succession of showstoppers and an image, which were important for a bluesman trying to break out of the grind of local gigs into national prominence."[citation needed] Along with his former harmonica player Little Walter Jacobs and recent southern transplantHowlin' Wolf, Waters reigned over the early 1950s Chicago blues scene, his band becoming a proving ground for some of the city's best blues talent. While Little Walter continued a collaborative relationship long after he left Waters' band in 1952, appearing on most of Waters' classic recordings throughout the 1950s, Waters developed a long-running, generally good-natured rivalry with Wolf... The success of Waters' ensemble paved the way for others in his group to break away and enjoy their own solo careers. In 1952 Little Walter left when his single "Juke" became a hit, and in 1955 Rogers quit to work exclusively with his own band, which had been a sideline until that time. Although he continued working with Waters' band, Otis Spann enjoyed a solo career and many releases under his own name beginning in the mid-1950s. Around that time, Waters scored hits with songs "Mannish Boy"[1] and "Sugar Sweet" in 1955, followed by the R&B hits "Trouble No More," "Forty Days & Forty Nights" and "Don't Go No Farther" in 1956.[17] England and low profile Waters headed to England in 1958 and shocked audiences (whose only previous exposure to blues had come via the acoustic folk/blues sounds of acts such as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Big Bill Broonzy) with his loud, amplified electric guitar and thunderous beat. His performance at the 1960Newport Jazz Festival, recorded and released as his first live album, At Newport 1960, helped turn on a whole newGENERATION to Waters' sound. However, for the better part of twenty years (since his last big hit in 1956, "I'm Ready") Waters was put onTHE BACK shelf by the Chess label and recorded albums with various "popular" themes: Brass And The Blues, Electric Mud, etc. In 1967, he joined forces with Bo Diddley, Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf to record the Super Blues and The Super Super Blues Band pair of albums of Chess blues standards. In 1972 he went back to England to record The London Muddy Waters Sessions with Rory Gallagher, Steve Winwood, Rick Grech and Mitch Mitchell — but their playing was not up to his standards. "These boys are top musicians, they can play with me, put theBOOK before 'em and play it, you know," he told Guralnick. "But that ain't what I need to sell my people, it ain't the Muddy Waters sound. An' if you change my sound, then you gonna change the whole man." Waters' sound was basically Delta blues electrified, but his use of microtones, in both his vocals and slide playing, made it extremely difficult to duplicate and followCORRECTLY.[citation needed] "When I play on the stage with my band, I have to get in there with my guitar and try to bring the sound down to me. But no sooner than I quit playing, it goes back to another, different sound. My blues look so simple, so easy to do, but it's not. They say my blues is the hardest blues in the worldTO PLAY."[18] Comeback Muddy Waters with James Cotton, 1971 Waters' long-time wife Geneva died of cancer on March 15, 1973. A devastated Waters was taken to a doctor and told to quit smoking, which he did. Gaining custody of some of his "outside kids", he moved them into his home, eventually buying a newHOUSE in Westmont, Illinois. His first born, Larry Williams (née Mud Morganfield) stayed with his mother, Mildred McGhee. Another teenage daughter turned up while Waters was on tour in New Orleans; Big Bill Morganfield was introduced to his Dad after a gig in Florida. Florida was also where Waters met hisFUTURE wife, the 19-year-old Marva Jean Brooks whom he nicknamed "Sunshine".[19] Eric Clapton served as best man at their wedding in 1979.[20] In 1981, Waters was invited to perform at ChicagoFest, the city's top outdoor music festival. He was joined onstage by Johnny Winter—who had successfully produced his most recent albums—and played classics like "Mannish Boy," "Trouble No More" and "Mojo Working" to a newGENERATION of fans. This historic performance was made available on DVD in 2009 by Shout! Factory. Later that year, Waters performed live with the Rolling Stones at the Checkerboard Lounge, with a DVD version of the concert released in 2012.[21] In 1982, declining health dramatically curtailed Waters' performance schedule. His last public performance took place when he sat in with Eric Clapton's band at a Clapton concert in Florida in autumn of 1982.[22] Death On April 30, 1983, Waters died in his sleep from heart failure, at his home in Westmont, Illinois. At his funeral at Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, throngs of blues musicians and fans showed up toPAYtribute to one of the true originals of the art form. "Muddy was a master of just the right notes," John P. Hammond, told Guitar World magazine. "It was profound guitar playing, deep and simple... more country blues transposed to the electric guitar, the kind of playing that enhanced the lyrics, gave profundity to the words themselves." Two years after his death, Chicago honored him by designating the one-block section between 900 and 1000 E. 43rd Street near his former home on the south side "Honorary Muddy Waters Drive".[23] The Chicago suburb of Westmont, where Waters lived the last decade of his life, named a section of Cass Avenue near his home "Honorary Muddy Waters Way".[24]FOLLOWING his death, fellow blues musician B.B. King told Guitar World, "It's going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music". A Mississippi Blues Trail marker has been placed in Clarksdale, Mississippi, by the Mississippi BluesCOMMISSION designating the site of Muddy Waters' cabin.[25] Influence His influence is tremendous, over a variety of music genres: blues, rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, hard rock, folk, jazz, and country. He also helped Chuck Berry get his first record contract. His 1958 tour of England marked possibly the first time amplified, modern urban blues was heard there, although on his first tour he was the only one amplified. His backing was provided by Englishman Chris Barber's trad jazz group. His use of amplification is cited as "the technological missing link between Delta Blues and Rock 'N' Roll."[7] This is underlined in a 1968 article in Rolling Stone''magazine: “There was a difference between Muddy’s instrumental work and that of House and Johnson, however, and the crucial difference was the result of Waters’ use of the electric guitar on his Aristocrat sides; he had taken up the instrument shortly after moving to Chicago in 1943.”[8] The Rolling Stones named themselves after his 1950 song "Rollin' Stone" (also known as "Catfish Blues", which Jimi Hendrix covered as well). The magazineRolling Stone'' also took its name from the same song. Hendrix recalled "the first guitar player I was aware of was Muddy Waters. I first heard him as a little boy and it scared me to death". Cream covered "Rollin' and Tumblin'" on their 1966 debut album Fresh Cream, as Eric Clapton was a big fan of Waters when he was growing up, and his music influenced Clapton's music career. The song was also covered by Canned Heat at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival and later adapted by Bob Dylan on the album Modern Times. One of Led Zeppelin's biggest hits, "Whole Lotta Love", is lyrically based upon the Waters hit "You Need Love", written by Willie Dixon. Dixon wrote some of Waters' most famous songs, including "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (a big radio hit for Etta James, as well as the 1970s rock band Foghat), "Hoochie Coochie Man", which The Allman Brothers Band famously covered (the song was also covered byHumble Pie and Steppenwolf), "Trouble No More" and "I'm Ready". In 1993, Paul Rodgers released the album Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters, on which he covered a number of Waters' songs, including "Louisiana Blues", "Rollin' Stone", "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "I'm Ready" (among others) in collaboration with a number of famous guitarists including Gary Moore, Brian May and Jeff Beck. Angus Young of the rock group AC/DC has cited Waters as one of his influences. The AC/DC song title "You Shook Me All Night Long" came from lyrics of the Muddy Waters song "You Shook Me", written by Willie Dixon and J. B. Lenoir. Earl Hooker first recorded it as an instrumental, which was then overdubbed with vocals by Waters in 1962. Led Zeppelin also covered it on their debut album. Waters' songs have been featured in long-time fan Martin Scorsese's movies, including The Color of Money, Goodfellas and Casino. Waters' 1970s recording of his mid-'50s hit "Mannish Boy" (a.k.a. "I'm A Man") was used in Goodfellas, Better Off Dead, and the hit film Risky Business, and also features in therockumentary The Last Waltz. The song "Come Together" by The Beatles references Waters: "He roller coaster/he got Muddy Waters." Van Morrison lyrics include "Muddy Waters singin', "I'm a Rolling Stone" from his 1982 song "CleaningWINDOWS", on the album Beautiful Vision. American Stoner Metal band Bongzilla covered Water's song Champagne and Reefer on their album Amerijuanican. In 2008, Jeffrey Wright portrayed Waters in the biopic Cadillac Records, a film about the rise and fall of Chess Records and the lives of its recording artists. ASECOND 2008 film about Leonard Chess and Chess Records, Who Do You Love, also covers Waters' time at Chess Records. In the 2009 film The Boat that Rocked (retitled Pirate Radio in the U.S) about pirate radio in the UK, the cryptic message that late-night DJ Bob gives to Carl to give to Carl's mother is: "Muddy Waters Rocks." In 1990, the television show Doogie Howser, M.D. featured an episode called "Doogie Sings the Blues" with the main character, Blind Otis Lemon, based on Waters, with references to his influence on the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, along with the performance of "Got My Mojo Working" by Blind Otis Lemon. He is also referred to as the original "Hoochie Coochie Man". Waters' son Larry "Mud" Morganfield is a professional blues singer and musician. Awards and recognition Grammy Awards Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed four songs of Muddy Waters among the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.[27] The Blues Foundation Awards Inductions U.S. Postage Stamp Discography Studio albums *''Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill Broonzy'' (1960) *''Folk Singer'' (1964) *''Brass and the Blues'' (1966) *''Electric Mud'' (1968) *''After the Rain'' (1969) *''Fathers and Sons'' (1969) *''The London Muddy Waters Sessions'' (1972) *''Can't Get No Grindin''' (1973) *''"Unk" in Funk'' (1974) *''The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album'' (1975) *''Hard Again'' (1977) *''I'm Ready'' (1978) *''King Bee'' (1981) Category:1913 births Category:1983 deaths